U.S. Supreme Court POSADAS v. NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK, 296 U.S. 497 (1936)

[Page 296 U.S. 497, 506]

venience and certainty. That is to say, by carrying the full text forward, the task of searching out and bringing together the various fragments which go to make up the completed whole, after specific eliminations or additions by amendment, is rendered unnecessary; and possible doubt as to the precise terms of the law as amended is avoided. Or, as Chief Judge Denio said in Ely and others v. Holton, supra: 'In short, we attribute no effect to the plan of dove-tailing the amendment into the original section, except the one above suggested, of preserving a harmonious text, so that when future editions shall be published the scattered members shall easily adjust themselves to each other.'

It follows that such parts of the original section 25 as were copied into the amended section were not thereby repealed and immediately reenacted, but continued, uninterruptedly, to be the law after the amendment precisely as they were before. Section 5 of the Organic Act of 1916 (48 U.S.C.A. 1003), supra, which in terms relates only to laws thereafter enacted, must be put aside as not applicable.

Judgment affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 Section 5219, Revised Statutes, as amended (12 U.S.C. (1934 ed.) 548 (12 U.S.C.A. 548)), provides that the legislature of each state may '( 1) tax said shares, or (2) include dividends derived therefrom in the taxable income of an owner or holder thereof, or (3) tax such associations on their net income, or (4) according to or measured by their net income,' provided certain specified conditions are complied with.

Footnote 2 'Sec. 25. Any national banking association possessing a capital and surplus of $1,000,000 or more may file application with the Federal Reserve Board, upon such conditions and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the said board, for the purpose of securing authority to establish branches in foreign countries or dependencies of the United States for the furtherance of the foreign commerce of the United States, and to act, if required to do so, as fiscal agents of the United States. Such application shall specify, in addition to the name and capital of the banking association filing it, the place or places where the banking operations proposed are to be carried on, and the amount of capital set aside for the conduct of its foreign business. The Federal Reserve Board shall have power to approve or to reject such application if, in its judgment, the amount of capital proposed to be set aside for the conduct of foreign business is inadequate, or if for other reasons the granting of such application is deemed inexpedient.' 38 Stat. 273.